With its 155 mile-per-hour sustained windspeeds, the near-Category 5 Hurricane Maria brought catastrophic devastation and destruction as it diagonally crossed the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from the southeast to the northwest on September 20, 2017. The official death toll estimate of 2,975 lost lives means this record storm became one of the most devasting hurricanes not only for Puerto Rico but for the U.S. Many of these deaths, as well as the prolonged human suffering, were attributed to what was described as inadequate disaster response and slow restoration of basic services (including running water, electricity, and the provision and distribution of food and medicine), and not to the direct impact of the hurricane itself. At the same time, Hurricane Maria made landfall when Puerto Rico had been confronting a severe economic crisis surging for over a decade. This crisis, referred to as La Crisis Boricua, was characterized by a significant loss of industry and jobs, a deteriorating infrastructure, record net outmigration, a shrinking and rapidly aging population, rising healthcare under-coverage, a bankrupt government, and federal legislation restricting fiscal policy decisions made by elected officials on the island. Thus, Hurricane Maria exacerbated the effects of La Crisis Boricua on the socioeconomic, health, and demographic outcomes affecting Puerto Ricans on the island and U.S. mainland. Bringing together scholars from a wide variety of disciplines (including economics, sociology, demography, health, psychology, disaster research, political science, education, the arts, and others), this volume represents one of the first interdisciplinary sets of studies dedicated to analyzing the effects of Hurricane Maria on island and stateside Puerto Ricans. Specific topics cover Hurricane Maria's impact on labor market outcomes, including wages and employment by industry; health implications, including mental health; changes in artistic expression; civic engagement; and disaster response and recovery. A common thread through many of the chapters was the destruction of Puerto Rico's electrical grid and the prolonged restoration of electricity and other essential services that resulted in the loss of thousands of lives.
Marie T. Mora is Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. Alberto Davila is Dean of the Harrison College of Business & Computing and Professor of Economics at Southeast Missouri State University. Havidan Rodriguez is President and Professor of Sociology of the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY).
Chapter 1: Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico: Context and Ramifications by Marie T. Mora, Havidan Rodriguez, and Alberto Davila Chapter 2: Employment and Wages in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria by Maria E. Enchautegui Chapter 3: Hurricane Maria's Impact on Puerto Rico's Labor Market: Job Losses, Wage Changes and Recovery of Municipalities Close to the Epicenter by Zadia M. Feliciano Chapter 4: Hurricane Effects on Industry Employment: Evidence from Puerto Rico by Jose Caraballo-Cueto Chapter 5: Understanding Hurricane Maria: Disaster Response as Transition Management by Marla D. Perez-Lugo, Cecilio Ortiz-Garcia, and Didier Valdes Chapter 6: Health and Healthcare Delivery in Puerto Rico Before and After Hurricane Maria by Jose M. Fernandez Chapter 7: The Health Profile of Puerto Ricans Before and After Hurricane Maria by Fernando I. Rivera, Rebecca Sanchez, Valeria Quinones, Veronica Arroyo Rodriguez, and Adriana Solla Chapter 8: Expected Impacts and Consequences of Hurricane Maria and Power Outages on Mental Health and Other Morbidity in Puerto Rico: Current Status and Lessons Learned from the Past by Amy Nitza and Shao Lin Chapter 9: Facing Disaster in a Complex System: Mental Health Initiatives within the Puerto Rico Department of Education Post-Hurricane Maria by Maria Rolon-Martinez, Joy Lynn Suarez-Kindy, and Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo Chapter 10: Puerto Rican Visual Art as Social Catharsis: What Post-Hurricane-Maria Art Is Saying through the Frame of Disaster by Carlos Rivera Santana and Bettina Perez- Martinez Chapter 11: Voter Registration and Turnout among Island-Born and Mainland-Born Puerto Ricans in the 2018 U.S. Congressional Elections by Mark Hugo Lopez, Antonio Flores, and Jens Manuel Krogstad Chapter 12: New York Stands with Puerto Rico: A Case Study of the State University of New York (SUNY) Response to Hurricane Maria by Havidan Rodriguez, Mark Lichtenstein, Sally Crimmins Villela, and Michael A. Alfultis Chapter 13: A Perfect Storm and Then Maria by Alberto Davila, Marie T. Mora, and Havidan Rodriguez
This edited volume offers 13 chapters by contributing authors from a range of social science disciplines exposing the impact of one of the deadliest natural disasters in US history on Puerto Ricans, both in the commonwealth and stateside. The early chapters describe the political, economic, demographic, and social conditions prevailing on the island when the hurricane made landfall in 2017. Drawing on a previous study by the editors, contributors cite the significant outmigration, a shrinking and aging population, decaying infrastructure, increasing unemployment, and a bankrupt government with federal restrictions on its fiscal autonomy. These crisis conditions created a foundation for a devastatingly slow disaster response to a storm that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and left the majority of island residents without power, running water, food, and medicines for more than a month. In addition to examining various disaster recovery efforts, individual chapters address the hurricane's impact on employment, health, civic engagement, migration patterns, and artistic expression. Indeed, as readers will learn, the impact is ongoing. The volume ends by posing new questions about the hurricane's long-term demographic impact on the island and the political implications of the migration of Puerto Ricans back to the island in Maria's wake. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. * Choice Reviews * Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico provides one of the most comprehensive, clear and rigorous analysis of the impact of hurricane Maria on the lives of Puerto Ricans. Unlike similar volumes, this collection of both well established and younger scholars provides welcomed, alternative, serious, well documented, and empirically substantiated reflections on the Puerto Rican experience in the aftermath of a series of catastrophic events amplified by hurricane Maria. -- Charles R. Venator-Santiago, University of Connecticut Hurricane Maria was a natural disaster that turned into a humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico as a result of antecedent conditions and exacerbated by the post-disaster response. Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico: Disaster, Vulnerability and Resilience provides a succinct but detailed broad-scope account and analyses of such antecedent conditions, consequences of the storm and human action, and responses, both inadequate and successful. It also offers useful and actionable policy recommendations from keen observers and practitioners of the Puerto Rican experience. This volume serves as required reference for the present Puerto Rican reality and those engaged in disaster attenuation and management. -- Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Columbia University
